


Swim Away With Me

by MercurialMagpie



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 08:00:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29432814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MercurialMagpie/pseuds/MercurialMagpie
Summary: Steve keeps swimming into the craziest situations; Bucky has all ten of his arms full keeping him safe! Fortunately, it looks like now he might have Tony to help... No, nope, Tony's just as crazy. Dammit...
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 3
Kudos: 47
Collections: Stuckony Love Letters





	Swim Away With Me

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by [Aquatigermice](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aquatigermice/pseuds/Aquatigermice) in the [Stuckony_server_love_letters](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Stuckony_server_love_letters) collection. 



> PROMPT: An aquarium hires Tony to update their cameras and tech systems for their new exhibit opening in a few months. Only the two creatures seem to have taken a liking to Tony and think he is their mate. Tony must figure out how to jailbreak his new 'friends' Steve the merman and Bucky the Octo and get them home. Maybe it is time for him to retire like he planned to do a little early.

Steve was agitated. (Bucky was pretty sure that was his base state, really.) He swam around the artificial lagoon the land folk had put them in (for probably the hundredth time), searching for a weak point they could exploit. Bucky, on the other arm, was waiting, nearly motionless, watching everything. There were two groups of land folk in this place, which seemed to be a cave they had made: the ones from the boat that had captured the two of them, and the ones who belonged here in the cave, who all had matching coloration over most of their bodies. Most of the latter were also agitated, both glancing and gesturing at Steve and Bucky whenever they got the chance.

Steve swam up to Bucky and shoved his shoulder. “C’mon, what are you doing? Don’t you want to get out of here?”

Bucky shifted his head just enough to roll his eyes at Steve. “We’re not going anywhere with all of those people right there. We can at least wait until most of them are gone. Just… settle down, save your energy, yeah?”

Steve crossed his arms over his chest and flicked his tail irritably. “Fine, if you wanna float there and do _nothing_...”

Bucky snorted. “You’re just mad ‘cause you don’t want to admit it’s your fault we got caught.”

Steve flung his arms out dramatically. “That dolphin was going to drown in that net, we had to do something!”

Bucky mimicked the gesture, but with all ten arms, causing enough of a wave to knock Steve back a bit. “And now, here we are. And later, we’ll be back in the ocean, but if we do anything right now, we’ll just get caught again by the-” He turned to point at all the land folk, but they were dispersing. The boat people were all leaving together, through one gap, while most of the cave people were going off in other directions, in much smaller schools. Except, of course, there had to be a few who came closer and stared directly at Bucky and Steve from just on the other side of the warm ice. “Yeah, they’re going to be keeping an eye or two on us for a while.” He waved a couple of arms at them, just to watch them get even more agitated, gesturing animatedly to each other.

“Buck.” Steve’s voice was tight, just wary enough to grab Bucky’s attention. “What are they-? No, that’s obvious. But _why_ are they-?” Bucky followed Steve’s gaze up to the surface, where the land folk were adding several small schools of fish to their waters. Cod, salmon, and even bluefin tuna, were all darting around each other in confusion and distress; in fact, it looked like every type of fish that swam near where he and Steve had been caught was now represented in this lagoon. Bucky very deliberately didn’t move, watching the fish to see if they behaved oddly. Steve sighed a string of bubbles at him. “What, you think they’re trying to poison us? If they wanted us dead, it would have happened already. They’re feeding us, that has to count for something, right?”

Bucky _did_ think that one salmon looked particularly tasty, so after a moment, he relented, contracting his arms without warning, so he shot past Steve and into the middle of the school. He caught the salmon he’d been aiming for, then turned back to Steve with a grin. “Well? What’re you waiting for? Aren’t you hungry?” Steve growled, even as he darted off towards the cod.

Over the course of the rest of the afternoon, the land folk added lots of other things to this cove, starting with more salmon and cod, and then a variety of plants and rocks in little clusters. Bucky stayed well away from the people whenever they were in the water, but Steve was fascinated, lurking near the surface to watch them change their skins, following while they were setting things up, and generally asking for more trouble than Bucky was willing to deal with. As the sun set outside, Bucky wrapped himself around one of the bigger stones and swore to himself that he wasn’t going to move all night. ( _Yeah, right. Enjoy it while you can, pal, you know he’s going to get you in more trouble soon enough._ )

~A~A~

Tony arrived at the aquarium at 6:05 pm, just in time to see the last stragglers being herded out and the doors being locked. Reed Richards, the place’s manager, was lurking anxiously off to one side of the lobby, and he hurried forward when he caught sight of Tony. “No, no, Gerald, let this man through, we’ve been waiting for him.” Tony obediently trailed behind when Reed turned and strode across the lobby. Halfway across, he stopped and turned back to Tony. “Mr Stark. Thank you for coming on such short notice, and for such an unusual request.” He offered a hand for a shake, but Tony had barely touched palms with him before he was off and moving again, leading them into the maintenance hallways. The man was dripping with nervous energy, and Tony was intensely curious. “Now, we don’t have anything like your non-disclosure paperwork, but I do request that you keep very much to yourself about what you are about to see. Please, swear to me?” He paused long enough to look Tony in the eye, then kept going, deeper into the maze of back rooms. “This is highly unusual, all of it, very strange, but really, what better chance could we have?”

Yeah, he definitely needed to know. “I solemnly swear.” _that I am up to no good_. Of course, there weren’t many he _could_ tell, no matter what he saw back here, but what could be so secret? It was an aquarium, for Cousteau’s sake! When he’d been in eight months ago to set up their current security systems, it was mostly alarms on the doors, and basic video inside and out, in case teenagers wanted to steal some poor creature for a prank, or PETA decided to “liberate” tropical fish into the North Atlantic. But now they wanted a bunch of specialized video, and directional audio. He would’ve signed a hundred NDAs, if only he could get answers to the questions piling up. “So, what is it I’m...” He trailed off in awe.

The tank in front of him was dominated by the two beings inside it. Tony’s libido instantly clashed with his scientific curiosity as his eyes darted over their every feature. Front and center was a… Merman was the only term that Tony could think of. The merman was gorgeous, even just on an aesthetic level; he had golden blond hair, sparkling eyes, and a well-muscled torso that led to a dramatic tail, pale skin giving way to iridescent blue scales and a translucent fan. Just behind and to his right lurked the other, and Tony’s brain scrambled to figure out a term. Though this one was as delightfully muscled on the top half, his bottom half consisted of eight arms, fanning out, their top sides (dorsal? Were the terms different?) dark brown with blotches of lighter brown, the undersides (ventral? Whatever…) tan and covered in suckers. His brain boggled at the flood of questions crowding in.

Richards beamed at him. “Fascinating, aren’t they? We’re going to need to collect a _lot_ of data, obviously, which is why we need you to set up audio and video all around the tank.”

Tony nodded distractedly, focusing on the two beings as he wandered closer to the tank. “Yeah, of course, two new species, revolutionize the field, yadda, yadda.” He realized the merman had been drifting closer at the same rate, and now they could almost touch, except for the glass in the way. He pressed his fingertips gently to the glass, and the merman mirrored his action. Suddenly, he was hit with the strangest feeling, like his heart had exploded into blue light, and he _knew_. These two didn’t belong in this sad little tank with its sad little patches of seaweed. He was going to help them escape, and one way or another, he was probably going with them. He was, surprisingly, kind of looking forward to it.

~A~A~

Steve felt it coming before he saw. It was a feeling he knew well, and treasured, though he’d only felt it once before, just before he met Bucky. It raced through him like lightning through a reef, and it was the easiest thing in the world to turn toward where his mate ( _I- we have another mate! A landman? How could we even-?_ ) would be coming from. When he stepped through an arch and into view, Steve was captivated. The landman was gorgeous, and his eyes were alight with curiosity. Steve found himself swimming slowly toward the barrier between them, and when the landman raised his hand, Steve reached back, wondering, hoping… The mate-bond flashed true, connecting Bucky-and-Steve to the landman, to Tony, and suddenly Steve was certain. One day soon, the three of them would swim together, free.

**Author's Note:**

> This is marked complete for now, but that's partly because deadlines. I may come back and write the actual escape part later.


End file.
